Whilst rummaging around the less paywall-protected areas of the online insurance media this morning in a frantic quest for stories to pinch and pass off as our own, Bankstone News happened upon a fascinating piece in popular title Insurance Itch that described how insurer body the Chartered Insurance Institution (CII) is hoping to persuade people to ‘trust’ the insurance industry.
It seems the CII got expensive consulting people PondwaterhouseScoopers (pWC) in to do some expensive strategic reviewal which revealed that nobody trusts insurers. This, in an age where many seemingly reasonable people have openly argued in favour of giving Donald J. Trumps a fair chance to prove himself, seems a tad harsh. But, anyway, there it it is. Where were we? Ah, yes: insurers want us to trust them.
There appear to be several prongs to the CII’s new “trust us, we’re insurers” drive. One of these seems to involve “keeping pace with the needs of the modern workforce and customer base” in order to persuade everyone that – along with education and medicine – insurance is one of what CII CEO Siam Fisher terms “the three great empowererers of all our lives.”
Another prong seems to be “pushing professional standards”, whilst a third is supplanting leading fashion house BIBA as the representative of UK insurance brokers. Which hopefully will avoid all those unedifying broker-insurers spats which only serve to undermine confidence and trust in the industry as a whole.
Amazingly, there’s even more to the CII’s new manifesto than that! There’s also a five-year plan, like Stalin used to have. This comes complete with a slightly sinister sounding “internal change programme” (cue frantic attempts to look busy amongst the teeming ranks of CII apparatchiks), “three key points” and 14 fully working streams.
The 3 key Ps are as follows:
Relevant: Persuading people like “policy makers, government and regulators” that insurance is not irrelevant and that it’s a good thing to have etc.
Modern: Convincing people that insurers are not old-fashioned, being a bit more up-to-date, getting down with the kids, and being ‘easy’ basically.
Diversity: Showing that insurers aren’t just middle-aged blokes in grey suits who are only interested in selling insurance policies to people just like themselves.
In a potentially controversial move, Rolling Stones legend Keith Richards has been tasked with increasing “engagement” between the Personal Fiancee Society and the CII. Or something…
There’s more, but we expect you’ve got the gist of it – and, indeed, probably lost interest – by now. Bankstone News certainly has.
If you really want more, you can see the Manifesto here.
No responses yet